1. Making Lean UX + Agile Work
for Enterprise & Startups
John Whalen, Ph.D.
Principal, Strategy & User Experience
Brilliant Experience
jw@brilliantexperience.com

2. Agenda
‣ Introduce Brilliant Experience
‣ Major Development Methodologies & UX
‣ Introducing Lean UX
‣ Pairing Agile + Lean UX
‣ Agile + Lean UX Secrets (and Secret Weapon)
‣ Review & Questions

3. Introducing Brilliant Experience

4. Research
Stakeholder Interviews
Field Research
Competitor Reviews
Expert Reviews
Strategy and Ideation
Strategy Workshop
Design Studio
Rapid Prototyping
Iterative Refinement
UX and Design
IA & Flow
Interaction Design
Concept Realization
Visual Design & Branding

5. Fast Facts
‣ Boutique user experience consultancy
‣ Founded 2011
‣ Founders 19+ years experience in the field
‣ Approximately 1/2 clients large enterprise, 1/2 funded
startups
‣ Self-funded, profitable since inception
‣ Annual revenue doubling since founding

6. Experience with Agile

7. Experience with Agile

8. Major Development
Methodologies & UX

9. We find that many clients:
!
- Know they’ve got a market for a product
- Have limited UX/design capabilities
- Were developing a suboptimal experience
- Need to move faster, (not slower) while
introducing UX

10. How do we “cross the chasm” for
User Experience
Design and Research
Great Experience,
Delivered with Agile
Insert
Magical
Process
Here

11. Not recommended

12. Hard to find

13. Try this

14. To help you understand what
“this” is, let’s play: ‘Name that
Methodology’

15. 1 2 3 4
Empathize
with the
audience you
are designing
for
Brainstorm
possible
designs
Build a
representation
of one or more
of your ideas
PrototypeIdeateResearch
Test your ideas
for feedback
Test

16. 1 2 3 4
Empathize
with the
audience you
are designing
for
Brainstorm
possible
designs
Build a
representation
of one or more
of your ideas
PrototypeIdeateResearch
Test your ideas
for feedback
Test
Design
Thinking

17. Design Thinking

18. Buil
d
1
Measure
2
Learn
3

19. Buil
d
1
Measure
2
Learn
3
Lean
Startup

20. Lean Startup

21. 1
23
User Stories
Design
& Develop
Feedbac
k

22. 1
23
User Stories
Design
& Develop
Feedbac
k
Agile

23. Agile

24. Introducing Lean UX

25. Lean UX…

26. Lean UX…

27. Two key points

28. 1. Must balance business & user

29. 2. Iteration improves the product

30. A few other notes

31. Prototype#communicates#everything
The#fastest#way#between#you#and#your#customers
h"p://xunyangixd.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/just:the:ux:process:large.jpgSource:?ArAcle?from?Jeff?Gothelf,?Mar?07,?2011,?Lean?UX:?GeXng?Out?Of?The?Deliverables?Business

32. You#don’t#need#“The#Spec”#to#keep#control
You#are#in#the#problemAsolving#business,#and#you#don’t#solve#
problems#with#design#documentation.
h"p://www.arcelormi"al.com/distribuAonsoluAons/repo/angelique/Corporate_picture_Document_Control_MR_RF.JPG
Source:?ArAcle?from?Jeff?Gothelf,?Mar?07,?2011,?
Lean?UX:?GeXng?Out?Of?The?Deliverables?Business

33. Number of deaths resulting from
lack of spec document
0

34. Pairing Agile + Lean UX

35. Fundamental Steps
Ultimately stated as
hypotheses, team
works
collaboratively to
create
Assumptions,
Hypotheses,
Outcomes,
Personas, and
Features.
Declare
Assumptions
use
rgr
oup
Prioritized
hypotheses,
personas, and
features are used
by the collaborative
team to create the
smallest thing
possible to test the
hypotheses.
Create an
MVP
mo
nito
r
The sooner you can
find which features
are worth investing
in, the sooner you
can focus your
limited resources
on the best
solutions to your
business problems.
Run an
Experiment
ligh
tbul
b
Test weekly, either
out in the real
world with
consumers or in
your lab.
Feedback &
Research
USE
RS

36. How it Works
2-Week Sprint 2-Week Sprint 2-Week Sprint
Iteration Planning MeetingSketching & Ideation
Theme

37. Working UX into an Agile flow

38. Working UX into an Agile flow

39. That’s all swell John,
but are those secrets to LeanUX for
agile?

40. Lean UX + Agile Secrets &
Secret Weapon: Design Studio

41. Getting strategy right helps
to properly frame all the
subsequent rapid design work.

42. Strategy Session / Design Studio
Get internal focus
on what matters
and prioritize
business goals.
Prioritize your
audiences, define
them and the
scenarios in which
they would use
your product.
Brainstorm ways to
satisfy 1 & 2.
IdeationAudience
Needs
Business
Needs
Flesh out best
ideas. Get
stakeholders on
board with
conceptual model.
Sketching
1 2 3 4

43. CEO: I know you had an
agenda,
but let’s just sketch our ideas
anyway...

44. Warm Up: Elevator Pitch
For
who
______ is a
that
Unlike
UXPA
(target customer),
(customer need),
(market category)
(one key benefit).
(competition),
(unique differentiator).
idea
need
benefit

45. Business Goals

46. Business Goals for: ______________
‣ Write down business goals independently
‣ Prioritize through collaborative discussion
‣ Examples:
- Make us all rich! Ka ching!
- Totally wow users!
- Create (opportunity) that provides great value to customers.
- Drive (user behavior) by (strategic design goal).
text
text
text

47. Business Goals & Alignment

48. LeanUX Secret 1:
Get the stakeholders aligned on
prioritized business goals.

49. Personas

50. Prioritize Personas

51. LeanUX Secret 2:
Prioritize personas.

52. Personas

53. Persona

54. No detailed persona exercise.
This is LeanUX!
No detailed persona exercise.
This is LeanUX!

55. LeanUX Secret 3:
Sketch personas, don’t over think
them.

56. Scenarios & Experience Mapping

57. Customer Experience Journey

58. LeanUX Secret 4:
Focus on the experience journey.

59. Ideation & Sketching

60. The Sketching Process
Quantity over
visual quality. The
more ideas the
better.
Sell your concept
to the group.
Using prioritized
user scenarios and
business needs.
CritiquePresentIdeate
Creatively based on
feedback.
Refine
1 2 3 4

62. LeanUX Secret 5:
Debate design direction
alternatives early in the process.

63. • Agreed&upon&conceptual&
direc0on&
• Include&wall&with&pictures&
• Liked&that&this&would&vary&
between&user’s&stated&
interests&and&related&things&
(think&Pandora)&
• Like&the&faces.&&Need&to&
include&way&to&acknowledge&
new&members&
• Need&to&emphasize&who&has&
viewed&your&profile,&or&liked&
your&content&

64. LeanUX Secret 6:
Develop conceptual model with
stakeholders, not the design.

65. Iteration & Design Thinking

66. One week’s iterations
Rapidly iterate (all of this in a week),
but share/test with stakeholders, potential users,

67. LeanUX Secret 7:
Rapidly iterate design.

68. Sketching & Prototyping

69. LeanUX Secret 8:
Share broadly.
Be attentive to internal feedback.

70. Usability Testing

71. 71

72. 72
Why is this
empty?
What is a past
hosted events?
Why is the nav so
complicated?
Feels awfully beige
for a fun app.
Is this where I
start?
How do
explore
features and
FAQ differ?
Will drafts show invitations
or greetings or polls?

73. Needed more content, less

74. Rapidly iterate & test

75. LeanUX Secret 9:
Test continuously

76. User Experience Design

77. Design Matters

78. LeanUX Secret 10:
Take the time to produce brilliant
experiences
(by not trying to accomplish too much)

79. Let’s Review

80. LeanUX Secrets
!
1. Get the stakeholders aligned on prioritized
business goals.
2. Prioritize personas.
3. Sketch personas, don’t over think them.
4. Focus on the experience journey.
5. Debate design direction alternatives early in the
process.
6. Develop conceptual model with stakeholders, not
the design.
7. Rapidly iterate design.
8. Share broadly. Be attentive to internal feedback.
9. Test continuously.
10. Take the time to produce brilliant experiences.

81. Is he done?

82. Common Questions
!
1. Does this work for a company like mine (Startup,
Enterprise, etc.)?
2. What was the composition of the most successful UX
teams?
3. How did the process differ between Startups and Large
Enterprises?
4. How does the Design Studios work?
5. When/how did you test prototypes with users?
6. How much functional documentation (e.g,. Spec.) did the
client need?
7. How does this work in an Agile development process?
8. What are the risks/benefits of a LeanUX approach vs.
waterfall?
9. Can you do this on a fixed budget and timeline?

83. Research
Stakeholder Interviews
Field Research
Competitor Reviews
Expert Reviews
Strategy and Ideation
Strategy Workshop
Design Studio
Rapid Prototyping
Iterative Refinement
UX and Design
IA & Flow
Interaction Design
Concept Realization
Visual Design & Branding
Thank You!
BrilliantExperience.com